Koh Samui caters to all budgets

James Shrimpton finds that Thailand's popular island isn't just for young fans of The Beach.

Shattering
the calm of a warm afternoon in the Samui township of Lamai, two vans
prowl the streets with loudpeakers espousing the delights of two beach
parties organised by the rival Ark and Reggae clubs, promising music
and fun lasting until 2am.

It's a reminder that while Koh Samui
in recent years has climbed to the top end of Thailand's tourism
market, it still caters to the backpackers and budget travellers who in
the 1970s first "discovered" the then-undeveloped island, on the Gulf
of Thailand 700km south of Bangkok.

Non-fancy accommodation is
still available around Samui from around 400 baht ($A14) a night, but
on and around the cliffs overlooking the sea is now a growing warren of
resorts with matchless views, five-star furnishings, exquisite cuisines
and infinity swimming pools - at umpteen times the cost.

And these deluxe havens of privacy are attracting more and more attention from the ranks of the rich and famous.

American
singer Britney Spears was reported staying at one of the newer resorts
during our recent visit, and we were told that British soccer star
David Beckham has invested in a million-dollar villa here.

We
took a look at half-a-dozen of them and stayed a couple of nights at
two: the Baan Taling Ngam Resort and Spa (70 villas, suites and rooms)
on an old coconut plantation on the west or so-called Virgin Coast, and
the Silavadee Pool Spa Resort (55 villas, suites and rooms) near Lemai
in the southeast.

Both have spacious reception areas atop cliffs
110m or so above the Gulf, and both use golf carts to ferry guests from
their tiered rooms to the white-sand beaches below, from which boats
can take them on excursions to small offshore islands for exploration,
swimming and snorkelling.

The immaculately-furnished guest rooms all have stunning sea views, as do diners in the outdoors/indoors restaurants.

Samui
itself is Thailand's third largest island with an area of 228.7 square
kilometres, roughly the same shape as Tasmania but about 300 times
smaller.

Weather is tropically warm all year, with an average high of 30 degrees Celsius; September and October are the rainy months.

Tourism has become the number-one industry on Koh Sumai.

First
settled some 1500 years ago by fishermen from the Malay peninsula, the
island was known as a grower and exporter of Kapok cotton and coconut
products before the backpackers began arriving 25 years ago.

A
trickle soon became a stream as mostly young persons from Britain and
elsewhere came to enjoy cheap holidays in the sun - not totally unlike
(at least geographically) the island of Phi Phi Le featured in the
Leonardo DiCaprio movie The Beach, released in 2000.

The stream
became a flood in the 1990s as the choice of resorts grew, enjoyed by
holidaymakers of all ages from Europe, Australia,in Asia and North
America.

Around the most popular beach areas grew the townships of Chaweng, Lemai, Taling Ngam and the capital, Nathon.

They
now bustle with customers of the many 7/11 mini-supermarkets,
ready-in-two-days tailors, clothing and souvenir shops, restaurants,
Thai massage houses, banks and travel companies, plus a couple of smart
shopping malls.

The island's airport, which itself looks more
like a tropical resort, opened in 1989 and ending reliance on ferries
from the mainland; it was upgraded in 2004-05 to allow for up to three
million passengers a year.

"Koh Samui grew up, and so did
tourism here," says general manager Nigel Tovey of the Baan Taling Gnam
resort, which underwent multi-million-baht upgrades last year.

Among
attractions were "hundreds of untouched beaches and high-quality
resorts with great food prepared by top-class international chefs," he
added, rating Koh Samui in this respect, at least the equal of the much
larger island of Phuket.

Most hotels have gyms for exercise as well as spas, for speciality Thai and other massages.

The
island also offers a variety of other sports along with the boat trips,
snorkelling and diving, elephant rides, jungle treks and shows with
monkeys collecting coconuts from tall palms, throwing them to the
ground where tourists can drink their refreshing milk.

Jet skis
can be hired from Chaweng, the largest and most popular beach, and from
Lamai; speedboats and sailboats are also available elsewhere as are
parasailing, kite-flying, volleyball and fishing.

Away from the
beach you can drive quad bikes through the jungle, fire AK-47s at a
shooting range - and play golf on three courses, one of 18 holes and
two of nine.

The 18-holer, the par-72 Santiburu Samui Country
Club south of Mae Nam on the north coast, and the grandly-named Royal
Samui Golf and Country Club, with (so far) nine holes behind the
mid-east coast and a par of 33, are hilly and challenging but also
present the player with awesome views of beaches, the Gulf and its
islets.

Another nine holes are planned for the "royal" but construction has been delayed due to financial difficulties.

The
other course, the Bophut Hills Golf Club in the northeast, is flatter
and not so physically taxing, with nine par-three holes.

During our stay we also viewed and dined at these other resorts:

.
Bandara Resort and Spa Samui - one of the largest, with a total of 150
rooms, suites and penthouses in a garden setting, on Bophut Beach in
Samui's north.

. Melati Beach Resort & Spa - a total of 77
luxurious villas, suites and rooms on the beachfront at Thongson Bay,
near the island's northernmost tip.

. The Kala Samui -
another clifftop resort, with eight villas and 30 rooms set amid
natural vegetation and rock formations, with great sea views; kala is
the Thai word for coconut shell, and the table settings for lunch were
all coconut-based, from mats to decorations.

. Anantara Koh
Samui Resort and Spa - one of the prestigious Anantara chain of resorts
specialising in massage and other spa wellness treatments, located on
Bophut Bay.

IF YOU GO:

Thai International flies from Australian ports to Bangkok, connecting with Bangkok Airlines services to Koh Samui.

Cars, motorcycles and bikes can be hired in most coastal towns; taxis are available but are on the expensive side.

For
information on holidays in Koh Sumai and elsewhere in Thailand, call
the Tourism Authority of Thailand on (02) 9247-7549, visit
www.tourismthailand.org or google the resorts mentioned.